Guide for kinship carers during lockdown 2021

This is a quick guide to some of your recent questions about concerns due to the recent national lockdown.

To access more detailed information, please use the buttons below:

FAQs

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Going to school or college

As part of the government’s roadmap out of COVID-19 lockdown, in England, face to face education resumed in schools and colleges from 8^th March 2021.

Childcare and children’s supervised activities also resumed where necessary to enable parents to work or engage in similar activities. The government introduced twice-weekly rapid testing for secondary and college pupils – in addition to regular testing for all teachers – to reduce the chance of the virus spreading in schools.

Higher Education students at English universities on practical courses also returned from 8 March.

For full details of the coronavirus guidance and schools in England, please click here.

In Wales there has been a phased return to schools and colleges since 22nd February 2021. For full details of the coronavirus guidance and schools in Wales, please click here.

Here are some useful tools and tips to help you support your children with their education.

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I have been finding my child’s behaviour difficult to deal with. Where can I get help?

Many kinship carers have found that children’s behaviour has been more difficult to manage during the lockdown. This is likely to continue as the children return to school and adapt to their new routine. If you are having difficulties, please talk to someone. You can contact the child’s school for advice, as they may be able to offer some time ‘in school’ for more vulnerable children. We have some useful links and guidelines surrounding therapeutic parenting, coping with trauma, anxiety and much more click here.

You may find it helpful to speak to one of our project workers if your local authority has commissioned our services. Check if we have project workers in your area:

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Looking after Yourselves and Getting Support

Contact

Where there is a legal order in place and the court has ordered contact with the parent(s), this should be complied with unless to do so would put the child you are caring for, or others at risk.  If your child or someone in their household has contracted the Covid-19 virus, or they are displaying any the symptoms listed on the Government health advice pages, they should be self-isolating and should not be transferring between households. This is in line with the Government advice for households with possible Covid-19 infection.

You should try and be as accommodating as possible to allow contact to take place in another way. Think creatively about how you can support your child to stay in touch with their parent(s) during any period of self-isolation. For example, Skype or Facetime can be great way to catch up and can be used to read stories, sing or play together. With older children you could also consider a watch party, where you gather online to watch a movie or video, commenting and ‘reacting’ in real time.

For England.
For Wales.

Please click here for more detailed information about contact with birth parents.

If you need advice, please contact our advice team here.

Keeping Active!

Although restrictions have been eased across England and Wales, you may still be being cautious about your interaction with others and want to think of ideas of how to keep active.

Joe Wicks is coming back to BBC. Get up and join in!

You could also get involved in our Kinship Active project if you live in Middlesborough or Redcar & Cleveland.

You may find it helpful to speak to one of our project workers if your local authority has commissioned our services. Check if we have project workers in your area:

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Fun Activities for all ages

Book Trust HomeTime: Looking for something fun as a family? Enjoy storytime with free online books and videos, play games, win prizes, test your knowledge in book-themed quizzes, or even learn how to draw some of your favourite characters. For our Welsh carers’, click here.

Woodland Trust: Get involved with Nature! Even though there are restrictions on leaving home, we can all go out for an hour’s exercise, local to where we live. Check out the ideas for exploring nature from the Woodland Trust. You don’t even have to go outside for some of these as there are lots of nature-related indoor activities too.

40 Fun Things to Do: More resources from Wales – but we can all share them!